1. Miracles

Miracles, eh. Let me tell you about miracles.

We've got a long history behind us of failing to explain, well, anything really. But we like to try. Miracles are what we call the things so improbable that we just have to find a reason for them. Some story, right? Some feed line for the crazy unfair or crazy awesome punch-line that the universe has just thrown us, that makes it seem less random.

And let's be clear, miracles are about control. Nobody ever built a religion, passed around the hat, built themselves a mega-church on a platform of "shit happens, dude." Control of others, the illusion of control in a world where, you know, shit actually does happen, dude.

But that's why I love science. It's been pretty good at explaining things, compared to say, arguing based on nothing about shit you just made up with other guys who also just made their shit up.

That doesn't mean I don't think there's a place for miracles. Just oh man, you really want to throw some science at things first. Scrape off the mud before applying the polish. Then if there's a nice shiny miracle under all that shit, you earned it. Put it in your pocket and take it to the bank. But if there's one thing science teaches us, it's gotta be: usually under the shit there's just more shit, which happens.

Like I said, there's a place for miracles. I'd be a hypocrite if I said there wasn't, for reasons which I will get to, sooner or later.

But anyway, science. All the shit cleaned away, no miracles in sight. No angels, no demons. No assholes bending spoons with their minds, just their thumbs. No hell beneath us, above us only sky. No UFO conspiracies, no little green dudes from outer space, even.

Yeah. Hm. About that.

Nothing out there, except trillions of stars, most of them with planets. No particular reason the place wouldn't be full of little green dudes, and every other colour. Nothing.

No reason except, we are kind of ... improbable.

Miraculous, you might say.

Once you swallow that, you can swallow some pretty strange things. More on that later, too.